Preparation for Worship
- Something green. Christian worship has different seasons throughout the year. We are in the season after Pentecost. The color green represents this time communicating growth and discipleship. Add some green to your worship area with cloth, paper, or plants.
- Two candles. Our worship begins with the light of two candles: one represents Christ’s humanity and the other represents Christ’s divinity.
- Something to eat and drink to celebrate communion. The type of food and drink does not matter for they are merely symbols which help us celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
The Worship of God
Light two candles in recognition of Christ’s presence. In our practice, one candle represents Jesus’ divinity and the other Jesus’ humanity.
Gathering for Worship
Passing the Peace
Say to one another, “May the Peace of Christ be with you.”
Respond by saying, “And also with you.”
Call to Worship
Psalm 133
How good and pleasant it is
when those who worship God
desire to live in unity and peace.
It is like the joy experienced
on seeing rainfall transform arid desert land
into a floral firework extravaganza,
a carpet of blooming colors.
In these ways, God’s blessings are truly visible.
Opening Prayer
God of all creation, your beauty and your blessings are visible not only in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the rivers running through, but also wherever people gather to worship you. In this time, we come before you grateful for all your blessings. We praise you for creating us and thus inviting us to share life with you. We praise you for showing us how to live through Jesus, the Christ. We praise you for empowering our lives with your Spirit. You desire a just and peaceful world. May we work with you to peacefully break down the barriers which separate people from you and from one another. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Song of Praise
All Are Welcome
Let us build a house where love can dwell
And all can safely live,
A place where saints and children tell
How hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
Rock of faith and vault of grace;
Here the love of Christ shall end divisions:
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where prophets speak,
And words are strong and true,
Where all God’s children dare to seek
To dream God’s reign anew.
Here the cross shall stand as witness
And as symbol of God’s grace;
Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:
All are welcome…
Let us build a house where love is found
In water, wine and wheat:
A banquet hall on holy ground,
Where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus,
Is revealed in time and space;
As we share in Christ the feast that frees us:
All are welcome…
Let us build a house where hands will reach
Beyond the wood and stone
To heal and strengthen, serve and teach,
And live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger
Bear the image of God’s face;
Let us bring an end to fear and danger:
All are welcome…
Let us build a house where all are named,
Their songs and visions heard
And loved and treasured, taught and claimed
As words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
Prayers of faith and songs of grace,
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
All are welcome…
Psalm Reading and Prayer for Others
Psalm 67
Let God grant us grace and bless us;
let God make his face shine on us,
so that your way becomes known on earth,
so that your salvation becomes known among all the nations.
Let the people thank you, God!
Let all the people thank you!
Let the people celebrate
and shout with joy
because you judge the nations fairly
and guide all nations on the earth.
Let the people thank you, God!
Let all the people thank you!
The earth has yielded its harvest.
God blesses us—our God blesses us!
Let God continue to bless us;
let the far ends of the earth honor him.
Prayer for Others
Pause after each paragraph to give voice to prayers as prompted. [Additionally, if you would like our church family to pray for someone or something in particular this week, email the request to tonya@cullowheebaptist.com.]
Merciful God, who shelters us and guides us,
we give you thanks for….
God who comforts,
receive those who are fearful and lonely….
God whose love is steadfast,
be refuge for the ill, the dying, and those who care about them.…
God of righteousness,
we ask for your wisdom and ways of justice
to prevail in our community, this nation, your world….
God who seeks our trust, grow us and guide us in your ways that are life-giving in your world. Amen.
Celebrating Communion
Communion celebrates our unity–our unity with God and with one another. At Cullowhee Baptist Church we practice an open communion which means that anyone who seeks to live the Way of Jesus Christ is invited to share in communion with us. Although we are not able to meet together, our bond still remains with one another and God through Jesus Christ.
Imagine Jesus setting a table for us, a place where we may come together and share a meal. Before we “come to the table,” let us set our hearts aright and seek the Lord’s forgiveness for our shortcomings.
Prayer of Confession
Lord Jesus Christ, you swept away centuries of prejudice and legalism when you reached out and accepted people as they were – accepted them as loved fellow human beings.
We confess our failure to be as inclusive as you….
if people feel excluded from our fellowship because of their appearance, their poverty, their lack of power or low self-image:
Forgive us.
Pause for reflection on these words, think carefully and honestly about where we are and who in our community may feel excluded from our fellowship.
If people feel excluded from our fellowship because of their sexuality, their addiction, their lack of education, their lack of a job……
Forgive us.
Pause for reflection on these words, think carefully and honestly about where we are and who in our community may feel excluded from our fellowship.
Strengthen us, Lord, where we are weak, and make us strong to withstand the seduction of a society which seems obsessed with the acquisition of wealth and power. We know in our hearts that discipleship demands an utterly new way of seeing people as you did, and being with them unconditionally, as you were, but the journey from heart to eyes and hands and feet can be long and difficult .
We ask your forgiveness Lord. As people who have received your grace and mercy over and over, may we be as merciful and as compassionate as you, in all we say and do in your name. Amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness
John 3:17-18
We rejoice in the good news that God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned.
Thanks be to God!
Now let us come to the “table.”
Invitation
The table has been prepared as Jesus requested,
and we have been invited to the meal.
We come to the table
like Peter, with more enthusiasm than resolve;
like James and John, dismayed by Jesus’s vision of a kingdom.
We come to the table
like Martha, hosting and leading with confidence;
like Mary eager to learn, and full of grief and love.
We come to the table
like Judas, disillusioned and rebellious;
like Mary, faithful to the end.
Jesus offers us the bread and the cup.
We come to the table of Christ.
Share what you have to eat.
Before eating, have someone say,
“This food represents the body of Christ.
As we eat, we remember Jesus.”
Share what you have to drink.
Before drinking, have someone say,
“This drink represents the covenant Christ made with us
that our sins will be forgiven.
As we drink, we remember Jesus.”
Prayer of Thanksgiving. Dear God, thank you for your abounding compassionate love. Thank you for guiding and leading us through these difficult times. Thank you for always being with us. Amen.
Song of Faith
Amazing Grace (NEW BRITAIN)
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
was blind but now I see.
Special Music
What Wondrous Love
The Gospel Reading
A Reading from the Gospels
Matthew 15:10-20
Jesus called the crowd near and said to them, “Listen and understand. It’s not what goes into the mouth that contaminates a person in God’s sight. It’s what comes out of the mouth that contaminates the person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you just said?” Jesus replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be pulled up. Leave the Pharisees alone. They are blind people who are guides to blind people. But if a blind person leads another blind person, they will both fall into a ditch.” Then Peter spoke up, “Explain this riddle to us.” Jesus said, “Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you know that everything that goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what goes out of the mouth comes from the heart. And that’s what contaminates a person in God’s sight. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and insults. These contaminate a person in God’s sight. But eating without washing hands doesn’t contaminate in God’s sight.”
Reflection on the Gospel from Jeffrey
“Wash Your Heart Out With Soap”
Listen to the reflection and/or read below.
Famously the French philosopher René Descartes wrote, “I think therefore I am.” He was not in search of religious knowledge but existential recognition. That is, he was answering the question, “How do we know we exist?” As long as I think or even doubt, he writes, I can only do so because I exist. And since I think, therefore, I am, therefore, my existence is proven.
Most of us don’t put too much work into answering the questions of existence. Yet I like the fact that he is willing to explore it. Descartes does not take for granted something that is so basic to life as existence. Whether we agree with his philosophy, I like his interest in finding understanding for things that are essential to life.
When Jesus brings up the question about eating, he is asking us to consider something that every single person in the entire world does. We all eat. If we don’t, we can’t survive. In addition, as I have said numerous times, all people deserve to eat. If the world were a just place then the only person who would ever go a day without eating is the one doing so voluntarily. Living with an unjust distribution of wealth and resources, however, means that people by the millions are forced to endure hunger daily. But, before I go off on one of my favorite topics, let’s return to what Jesus says about food. This time, he’s talking about holiness rather than hunger.
Christianity is the only major world religion that does not have restrictions on food consumption as part of its central teachings. Jews have kosher food laws. Muslims follow halal practices to determine what is permitted to eat and foods to avoid. Hindus and Buddhists are well known vegetarians believing that they should not eat the flesh of any sentient being because the life within them is the same as the life in us. Though all the Jewish food restrictions are in the Bible (mostly in Leviticus), Christians simply ignore these biblical requirements. Even biblical inerrantists who will argue with their own grandmother that every word of the Bible is inspired and without contradiction will queue up in the Bojangle’s take-out window and order their fill of sausage biscuits without considering that the Bible is explicit when it says “And the pig…it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcass. It is unclean for you.” (Leviticus 11:8) While I am convinced that the story of Peter in Joppa played a big role in Christianity setting aside the kosher food laws (see Acts 10), Jesus paved the way for Baptists to enjoy their bacon in Matthew 15.
In every way, Jesus was a bar mitzvah-ed, Torah-reading, Sabbath-attending, festival observing Jewish Palestinian. Like his Jewish disciples, Jesus likely never ate food that was not kosher. So consider the angst he caused among his Jewish followers when he says publicly to a crowd of people, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” (Matthew 15:10b-11) Kosher food was so basic to Jewish life and here Jesus is questioning its religious power. Yet it is clearly delineated in the Torah. And the Torah is God’s Word. No wonder the very next thing the disciples tell Jesus is, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
I really don’t think Jesus was either being snarky — “Hey, Peter. Listen to this. It’s really going to tick off those Pharisees” — or showing disdain — “Good, I’m glad they were offended. I meant to do that.” And he certainly is not criticizing the practice of eating kosher on its own. My conclusion is different: I believe Jesus knew that too many of his own followers trusted that their holiness was a result of following good things like eating kosher. When we judge ourselves and think that all is well with our soul because we remembered to skip the bacon cheeseburger and order the lamb stew, then Jesus says we have relegated our righteousness to rules. It turns out that even the unholy ones can play by the rules and still be wicked. Something more is required to be holy.
You and I don’t eat kosher, though, remember – Christianity has no food restrictions. Before we go any further with Jesus’ teaching, then, we have to examine ourselves and see what it is that we have substituted for kosher laws. What rule do we observe that makes us feel good about God’s judgment on our life? The trick is, it has to be something that is not inherently wrong but that we trust way too much.
Given that the novel coronavirus is disrupting almost every area of life right now, perhaps we can put attending worship in the sanctuary in place of eating kosher food. All of us want to be gathered together in the sanctuary on Sundays for worship. Other than eating every day, attending worship on Sundays with other Christians in a sanctuary may be the most “normal” part of my entire life. I have been doing it nearly every single Sunday for the past 53 years. It began as a family practice. Then became a habit. Maybe for a time it was even a way to cope with life and its difficulties. In college, my roommate went to worship to find a girlfriend. I’ve had people tell me they come to church because it helps them not feel guilty. Others come because they always feel guilty. Some have determined that the end result of worship is that it makes them a better person, and their mama said to go to church as long as it helps you. I have known couples who came to church just to have a free place to get married. Perhaps we all can agree that worship is not only a good thing, but is one of the most central disciplines for all Christians everywhere. But we also know inherently that worship can be misused, turned into a selfish gain, and often attended rather than practiced. If we worship only to force God to like us, then we have missed the target. Worship is to be centered always on God’s presence and our humble response. God is the focus of worship. Not us. Not what it produces. Not how it makes us feel. And it is always free to choose and never a compulsion. Thus in Matthew 15 Jesus might well say, “It is not missing worship that defiles you, nor coming to worship that sanctifies. It is what is in your heart that defiles.”
So hear this, Jesus says. If we think coming to the sanctuary is what it takes for God to like us, even love us, and therefore be required to accept us, then we are deceiving ourselves. Worship in the sanctuary is not a vaccination against damnation. In the same way, being prevented from attending worship in the sanctuary in order to keep other people healthy is not an evil perpetrated by cancel culture or a conspiracy of anti-Christian liberals in American politics.
Here is my paraphrase of Jesus’ words in response to the disciples: “Do you see that whoever goes into the sanctuary also leaves the sanctuary and returns to the world. It is the worship of God that comes from the heart that God sees. Thus in worship and out in the world, our heart reveals our love for God and one another. The heart also shows what defiles us – manipulative intentions, power over others, over indulgence in desire, wanting what we don’t need, repeating false lies, celebrating when people we don’t like fail. These are what defile a person, but to worship at home during a pandemic does not defile.”
I’m convinced that much of what Jesus says is intended to move us away from legalism. Legalism is childish ignorance. Righteousness is not a checklist. Commandments are not like bumper gates at the bowling alley. Following God doesn’t have GPS coordinates. Holiness is not a part of your aura. Discipleship is not calculated by karma. You are not what you eat…or drink. These are all façades and can be made up. It’s as easy to dress up on the outside and fool a bunch of people as it is to cheat at solitaire. Yet in both instances, we know the difference. So does God.
When I was growing up, strict orders against vulgar language were enforced. Not just by parents at home but nearly everywhere. Which means my friends and I, the ones who taught me how to “cuss the right way” when I was about 11 years old, also learned the meaning of “wash your mouth out with soap.” In my house, this phrase was used figuratively. But I had a friend named Corey who came to school one day and we learned that some families take the saying literally. I think we laughed every time we saw him for the next two days.
Jesus seems to be calling us to wash our hearts out with soap. Or at least, to recognize that hearts can be mended. They can be sanctified, cleansed, as it were, in order to direct our lives in God’s Way with a genuine and honest search for holiness. In this way, our worship is acceptable to God both in the sanctuary and on the sofa. Worship away from the sanctuary may even have the added benefit of focusing our worship on God rather than our friends, or being seen by others, or demoting the worship of God to a social gathering. Even beyond worship, Jesus is offering us a second chance, or a third, or a seventh. The reason and manner in which our hearts respond to God and others can be made right. While I don’t like the term “saving souls” perhaps there’s a way Jesus is coming close to “saving hearts.” Turning them from evil to holy. Training them to serve God rather than ourselves or the world. Fixing their broken parts that desire sin and repairing them for the work of God’s grace.
Because of COVID-19 people seem to be asking often, “how are you doing?” Jesus is asking us a different question: “How is your heart?” He knows the answer. So do you. That leaves us all with an opportunity – to live out our heart’s depth, or to renew our heart under God’s care.
Questions for Reflection
- What to you is the purpose of worship?
- How do we maintain the church’s focus on worship and spiritual growth without becoming just a social club?
- [For you to think about rather than say out loud] What in your heart needs to be cleansed?
Prayer of Thanksgiving. Thank you God for constant love. Please help our church family grow deeper and deeper in your love. Amen.
Song of Faith
God Be in My Head
God be in my head, and in my understanding.
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking.
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.
God be in my heart, and in my thinking.
God be at mine end, and at my departing.
Sending Out
May the blessing and peace of God uphold you,
May the compassion and love of Christ enfold you,
and the vitality and power of the Holy Spirit nourish and sustain you
today and always. Amen.
Closing Song. In our tradition, we close worship by singing the first verse of Blest Be the Tie. Mindy starts us each week, and so she does today as well.
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Amen.
Credits: The image is from our Summer 2012 mission trip to Haiti. All Are Welcome was written and composed by Marty Haugen and sung by Mindy. The Prayer of Confession and Sending Out were written by Moira Laidlaw. The communion litany was written by the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee, 2018. Amazing Grace is set to the tune NEW BRITAIN from the Virginia Harmony, 1831. The words were written by John Newton (1807). The song was played by Aidan. No one know who wrote the words to the song, What Wondrous Love. This solo arrangement was composed by Charles Dupree and sung by Mindy. God Be in My Head is set to a tune with the same name composed by Walford Davies. The words are from The Book of Hours, 1514. Blest be the Tie is set to the tune DENNIS which was composed by Johann G. Nageli (1836) and arranged by Lowell Mason (1872). The words were written by John Fawcett (1782). All scripture passages are from the Common English Bible translation. Hymns were played by Tracy on the organ and sung by Mindy. Permission to podcast / stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-724755. All rights reserved. All writings have been used by permission from the posting sites or authors.
Cullowhee Baptist Church 